Guppies Just Aren't My Thing :(

[KrystaK]

Over the last month I've bought seven guppies. (Not all at once, a group of 4 and a group of 3)
The group of four have all died, and the group of three have two remaining.

I don't know what the problem is. The group of four were introduced into my main tank, developed fin rot, so I moved them to my Hospital tank and they died.

The group of three I got did well for a week, I treated them for fin rot to be safe. And on the last day of treatment one of the females developed a nip in her fin, which turned into fin rot. To top it all off she developed what appeared to be dropsy (I think, never dealt with it before) And died within 10 minutes of me noticing this development.

So I'm at a 2:7 survival rate. That is horrifying.

But I don't know what on earth I'm doing wrong!
Stats on both tanks are the same;

Ammonia: Between 0 and .25
pH: 8 (Tap water has a high pH)
Nitrate:0
Nitrite: 0
Water temp on the main tank is 74 in the hospital is 76.
Both have what I assume to be the right amounts of salt (1 Tablespoon per 5gal)

Does anyone have any thoughts? Or is it just a fact that guppies are not my type?

 

[balajake]

i couldn't tell you about fin rot but .25 ammonia is bad and if you get a reading like that then big water change of about 70%/90% should be done. also i think the adding the salt was a bad idea. why did you add salt ?

 

[nehpets81]

Krysta, you are not alone - you might want to sneek a look in the Common livebearer part of the forum. I have lost 4 out of my original 6 Guppies now in less than a year and another one is on its way out.

So, most of your Guppies died of fin rot? Apart from the one with dropsy symptoms did they have any other symptoms? Are there any other fish in the tank? How did you treat for the fin rot?

I *think* Guppies are pretty tolerant of salt but as stated above any Ammonia is too much. If you are testing the Ammonia with the API liquid tests, however, I do find it quite hard to tell yellowy green from yellow unless I am in clear natural light....

 

[SaTiVa1984]

Both have what I assume to be the right amounts of salt (1 Tablespoon per 5gal)

Are you adding salt to treat illness or just adding it because the tanks require it?

Not 100% on this but i think guppys are brackish and don't mind salt, but if they have been bred in captivity for years, and are used to water without it that maybe could be the issue.

Hopefully someone with a lot more guppy experience can help, personally i'm not a fan of them

 

[KrystaK]

I use an API test kit, and it is pretty difficult to tell the exact ammonia level, the colors in the bottom of the chart are all basically the same. I generally say the readings are between 0 and .25, because that's what they look like, not that they are actually .25ppm.

As for the salt, in my community tank I have Mollies, and they are my favorite fish, and they're brackish, so I add the salt. I was trying to acclimate the guppies to the sale level my community tank would be. (I introduced the sale AFTER the first guppy developed fin rot) I got advice from someone else of the forum saying that salt had helped their guppies (And since I had to acclimate them anyways, I thought I'd try it)
Guppies are said to be hardy fish so I figured they would be fine.

There were no other symptoms really, one of the girls who died in the group of four had no energy and looked dead, but when I went to net her she darted away and was fine for a while...
The girl who maybe had dropsy... well i thought she was pregnant, but I guess that was just her innards swelling (And she was probably preggo too)

I've done a 70% change to the hospital tank and a normal change in my community tank so everyone seems happy and healthy, but I'm paranoid about putting the guppies in the main tank in case they get sick or something. When I introduced my first group to the tank they developed fin rot and my Cory's have since lost color in their fins, not quite fin rot, but sort of the beginning of it. They all used to have black fins but now they're not, so I'm worried about them too..

 

[ZoddyZod]

if you have trouble telling the colour difference on the ammonia chart (which I always did) then test bottled water side by side with the tank. You'll then be able to see if there is any hint of green in the tank water test - the bottled should be zero. Don't use tap water as ammonia can be present.

as for your guppys - they are notoriously delicate due to years and years of selective breeding. They just aren't very robust little fish and will keel over given the slightest oppurtuinity - exposure to any ammonia certainly wont help.

 

[snazy]

When people are giving advice about guppies being delicate, is that from personal experience?
To say guppies died from inbreeding defects you have to be certain that the water conditions were perfect at the time it happened or immediatelly prior to that.
To me it seems that due to extra amount of fish being introduced to the tank, the filter could not cope and the ammonia levels elevated for a period of time causing fin damage. If these toxic levels are there for a good few days, then from a normal non-contagious fin damage this can turn into a bacterial infection and infestate the whole tank.
Ammonia stress can actually cause even other sicknesses because of the stress on the fish, not only fin rot, but this is the most common one.

Alternatively, you introduced a disease with the new fish which could have happened with any type of fish not only guppies.

As for the ammonia, as Zoddy suggested, if you have 0.25 ammonia, it normally has a green tinge if you look at the test tube from the top to bottom. Or look at the surface of the solution inside the tube, if there is ammonia it is darker or greenish.

May I ask what is your tank size? What model/type filter do you have? How many and what other fish do you have?

 

[ZoddyZod]

When people are giving advice about guppies being delicate, is that from personal experience?

mine certainly is. I've added some to a well established tank and had a 50% death rate within a week, and all gone in six months. Never had anything that appeared to be as fragile as a guppy.

 

[magical trevor]

mine certainly is. I've added some to a well established tank and had a 50% death rate within a week, and all gone in six months. Never had anything that appeared to be as fragile as a guppy.

All my levels where fine and i bought 5 guppies last weekend introduced them correctly floated the bag for ages added water etc etc came home on tuesday 1 was lying at the bottom of the tank away to the toilet she went (checked my parimeters everything fine nothing out the ordinary)

Came home on wedensday to find another 1 dead somthing had started to eat it too! so fished her out and off to the toilet. Once again checked my parimeters everything fine. Now nearly a week later theres only really 1 thats still full of beans and swimming about other 2 just kinda bobbing about shame really coz they look so colourful!

 

[Cazgar]

My experience with guppies isn't good either.
Most of mine only lasted 6 months, yet I can keep Oto's which are supposed to be fragile, so there were no water quality issues.
I think sometimes we're just unlucky & get a bad batch from the Lfs

 

[gforce17]

Sorry to be critical but you shouldn't flush dead fish - can introduce disease into water systems. Bury them in garden if you can. Good luck with guppies!!

 

[AshP1986]

Did you say you have corys In salt water??? I am pretty sure that corys can NOT have salt water... I only have guppies.. I started with two and then added 2 more in my 3 gallon. Then I moved up to a 10 gallon. I lost 3 of the 4 because I was missing a filter cover and they got sucked into the filter, oops. So I bought 6 more over the course of a couple weeks(the lone survivor got EXTREMELY lonely and almost died). They have had babies and seem to be thriving in a slightly brackish water environment. I also have a fw flounder. I am thinking of removing all the salt so I can introduce an algae eater.

 

[magical trevor]

Sorry to be critical but you shouldn't flush dead fish - can introduce disease into water systems. Bury them in garden if you can. Good luck with guppies!!

Really? I've never heard of that before. I always assume it would be ok as it goes to the pumping station and the water is "cleaned".

Ill need to rememeber that

 

[seabear]

I lost 4 of my 6 guppies within a month I bought them.
I was at the LFS yesterday and got 4 more female guppies and I told the guy that all my female died, he told me female guppies can become weaker if they are pregnant and if the water condition turns a little bit bad they will die. I don't know how accurate is his advice. I checked my water yesterday before and after I introduced the new guppies and I had 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate, I am trying to get the nitrate lower.

 

[AshP1986]

I lost 4 of my 6 guppies within a month I bought them.
I was at the LFS yesterday and got 4 more female guppies and told the guy that all my female died, and he told me female guppies can become weaker if they are pregnant and if the water condition turns a little bit bad they will die. I don't know how accurate is his advice. I checked my water yesterday before and after I introduced the new guppies and I had 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate, I am trying to get the nitrate lower.

Seabear I think that nitrate level is okay... not sure though. Just be sure to watch your ammonia with 4 new fishies. Do you have any males? What is your male to female ratio?